Cylinder enclosed ball sliding game piece



Sept. 14, 1965 BARD CYLINDER ENCLOSED BALL SLIDING GAME PIECE Filed May28, 1964 FIG.

FIG. 2.

FIG. 5.

INV EN TOR. G EOAPGE 5/220 United States Patent 3,206,210 CYLINDERENCLOSED BALL SLIDING GAME PIECE George Bard, 10540 84th Ave., Edmonton,Alberta, Canada Filed May 28, 1964, Ser. No. 371,136 1 Claim. (Cl.273-128) This device relates generally to game pieces and par ticularlyto game pieces of the type adapted to be slid over a playing surface.

Indoor games, using hand propelled game pieces include the games ofshuffleboard, curling and the like wherein an elevated playing surfaceis provided and opposing players utilize game pieces that may bepropelled over the playing surface to strike against and knock off theopponents game pieces or that may be propelled with sufficient accuracyto stop in a scoring area.

In general, the playing pieces comprise some form of circular weighteddisc and it is necessary to maintain the playing surface in a very cleanand highly polished condition if the weighted game pieces are to beoperated thereover with any degree of success.

To overcome the necessity for highly polished playing surfaces, therehave been developed patents of the type described in US. 1,849,414 toTurnbull in 1932 and 2,454,492 to Turnbull in 1948 wherein there isprovided an outer casing with a weighted ball contained within thecasing and freely rotatable so that when the casing is propelled over aplaying surface the ball will roll over the surface within the casing.

The difficulty With devices of this sort and in particular the Turnbulldevices is found in the fact that the ball rolling over the playingsurface invariably picks up minute dust and dirt particles and, sincethe ball is rolling, these particles are carried up into the outercasing and lodged in the casing. When this dirt accumulates to asufiicient degree, it will act adversely on the rolling ball with theresult that the game piece will assume an erratic path as it ispropelled over the game surface.

A further disadvantage lies in the fact that it is diflicult for theuser of the game piece to clean out the dirt and dust unless the entiregame piece is submerged in a cleaning solution and then dried.

In addition, the construction of prior devices of this sort has beensuch that it is difiicult to separate the ball and the casing shouldthere be any damage to either of the components and, as a result, whenthe device hecomes defective, it is usually more economical to discardthe defective device and to obtain a new one.

Further, devices of this nature generally may be operated with only oneside in contact with the playing surface and the user must always insurethat the correct side will be in contact with the surface before theplaying piece is thrown.

I have developed an improved game piece of the general type utilizing anouter casing with an inner Weighted ball and I have overcome the aboveand other difficulties inherent in game pieces of this nature byproviding an outer casing having a longitudinal straight sided bore witha weighted ball positioned within the bore and contained within thecasing by simple snap rings located in grooves in the wall of the bore.

Further, my game piece is provided with parallel ends and is constructedso that the garne piece may be used with either end in contact with theplaying surface and so that the user is not required to check that thecorrect side of the game piece is being used.

Further, the use of a simple snap ring located in a groove in the wallof the bore makes it possible to remove the ring quickly and easily toextract the ball from the outer casing so that repair or replacement ofthe ball or casing may be made with little difiiculty.

A further and important advantage of my improved construction may beseen from the fact that the longitudinal bore of my outer casing hasstraight Walls so that the weighted ball may move freely longitudinallyin the casing and is limited in its movement only by the snap rings inthe grooves. With this construction, I am enabled to provide a gamepiece wherein the weighted ball may project sufiiciently below eitherend of the casting so that a brush or other cleaning implement may beinserted from the opposite end of the casing to remove any dust or linton the surface of the ball and around the Wall of the bore. When thedirt andlint has been removed from the one side of the casing, it isonly necessary to invert the game piece to allow the ball to drop to theopposite end of the bore and dirt and lint may then be removed from theopposite side.

In the drawings illustrating a preferred embodiment:

FIG. 1 is a view in projection illustrating my game piece in itspreferred form.

FIG. 2 is a sectional side elevation illustrating my device raised froma playing surface so that the ball will drop within the casing to themaximum distance permitted by the snap ring.

FIG. 3 is another side elevation, partly in section, to illustrate theconstruction of my device and the relative position of the ball andeasing when the game piece is resting on a playing surface.

As seen in the drawings, my device consists of a casing indicatedgenerally at 1 which is cylindrical in form and which has a straightsided longitudinal bore there through. The ends 3 and 4 of the casing 1are parallel and it should be noted that the sides of the casing arebevelled as indicated at 5 to reduce the end area of the casing and tominimize the frictional drag of the casing when it is slid over aplaying surface as designated at 6.

While the casing 1 could be constructed of any suitable material, I havefound it best to use a high impact plastic or composition material thatwill not easily chip or mar.

The ball 7 within the bore 2 is of a diameter to be freely rotatable inthe bore and is contained within the bore by the snap rings 8 and 9seated in grooves 10 located adjacent the ends 3 and 4 of the casing.

As illustrated best in FIG. 3 in the drawings, when the casing 1 isrested on a playing surface on either of the ends 3 or 4, the ball 7will also rest on the playing surface and, as the casing 1 is slid overthe playing surface, the ball will roll within the casing. During thisrolling movement over a playing or other surface, the ball 7 invariablywill pick up lint or small dirt particles and these particles will becarried up into the casing to be lodged on the walls of the casing atapproximately the midpoint of the casing as designated by the numeral11.

To clean this dirt or lint from the casing, it is only necessary toelevate the casing 1 from the playing surface to allow the ball 7 todrop in the casing as illustrated in FIG. 2 in the drawings and then acleaning brush, rag or other device can be inserted easily from theopposite end of the casing to remove the dirt. In the embodimentillustrated in FIG. 2, the brush or rag would of course be inserted fromthe end 3 of the casing. Should it be desired to remove dirt from theopposite end of the casing, it is only necessary to invert the casing 1to allow the ball 7 to drop to its maximum limit at the end 3 and sothat the brush or rag could be inserted at the end 4.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3 in the drawings, the end 4 ofthe casing is in contact with the playing surface 6. It will be obviousthat the casing could be inverted if desired so that the end 3 were incontact with the playing surface and the device would operate inprecisely the same fashion.

3 What I claim as my invention is: References Cited by the Examiner Aplaying piece for sliding moye rnentacross a laying UNITED STATESPATENTS surface comprising a casing, a stialght sided longitudinal borethrough the casing, a ball freely rotatable in the 1,849,414 3/32 Tumbuu3 bore and adapted to roll on the playing surface when 5 2585:4525 2/52GOYdOIl 273-128 A1 either end of the casing is in sliding movementacross the playing surface and means to retain the ball in the FOREIGNPATENTS bore, such means positioned in the bore to allow the ball 16,6131901' Great Britain.

to drop suffiicently through the bore to allow more than half of theWall area of the bore to be cleared for cleaning. 10 RICHARD PINKHAM,Primary Examiner-

